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Nokia Money is the latest challenger to PayPal as the online-payments arena becomes increasingly competitive. IDG News Service reports that MasterCard also is working on a mobile-payment service, and Intuit recently launched its online-payment service called Intuit PaymentNetwork.

Related Summaries

EBay said it will split off its payments unit PayPal into a separate company next year. The move comes as Apple launches its mobile-payment service Apple Pay, adding competition to the sector. PayPal and eBay can be more competitive operating separately, company officials said.

Home Depot confirmed Monday that its payment networks had been hacked, with data on customer credit and debit cards being accessed in Canada and the U.S. The company said PINs for debit cards were apparently not accessed, and customers in Mexico or online were not affected by the breach.

Discover Financial Services has inked a deal with India's RuPay payment network in an effort to increase Discover's international presence. The agreement with National Payments Corporation of India will allow Discover customers to use their cards with merchants and ATMs in India.

PayPal may begin offering daily deals aimed at mobile-device users in early 2012, according to a published report, which says the online-payment service owned by eBay will push discounts to consumers based on their locations. "PayPal has a very large user base and has the potential to succeed with local and retailer offers," said Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence, a consulting and research firm.

Facebook has been gradually expanding its offerings and seems to be gearing up to challenge PayPal, the online-payments division of eBay. Facebook has hired online-payment specialists, tested technologies and worked to accommodate a variety of currencies, suggesting that the social-networking site is planning to launch an online-payments business.